17 Years On: US Politicians Still Support Terror Organizations

The rubble of the World Trade Center smoulders following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York. (Photo: Porter Gifford/Corbis via Getty Images)

Seventeen years after September 11, 2001, America is seeing its own politicians still supporting terror organizations. These activities significantly jam progress in the “War on Terror.”

In addition, many elected officials in the U.S. are still in the dark when it comes to understanding the scope of religious fanaticism as pushed through political channels — an ideology known as Islamism and promoted by Muslim Brotherhood organizations, among others.

The war against Islamist extremism is both ideological and kinetic. It’s a war of ideas as much as it is a war with boots on the ground. The frustrations Americans feel with the kinetic war are well known. Terror groups are multiplying, the frequency of terror attacks has increased, and we’re nowhere near ending the first war against terror that we started after 9/11 in Afghanistan.

However, growing equally complex over time, is the cultural and ideological war. Islamists groups infiltrate both governments and cultures with relative ease. Extremism of the mind, disguised by a suit and tie, is tradecraft for well-organized Islamists — especially those within the Muslim Brotherhood.

While their elaborate networks are a complex labyrinth for the average American to navigate, 17 years after 9/11, this landscape must be mastered by elected officials. Otherwise, they are failing the American people.

Take, for example, Democratic gubernatorial candidate for governor of Ohio Rich Cordray. On August 27, 2018, Cordray rebuked his Republican opponent Mike DeWine for skipping a Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) event.

CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. CAIR’s leadership routinely refuses to denounce terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and CAIR is notorious for its hostility toward reformist Muslims.

On September 9th, 2018, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) will be speaking in a charity for the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood group in Michigan closely affiliated with the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), another well-known Islamist organization riding the tides of cultural progressives to make ideological space for its orthodox interpretation of Islam.

It’s also critical to note how political candidates for office and elected officials blur the lines between ideological extremism and heightened, extremist-infused geopolitics. In the case of Congresswoman Dingell, Yemen is a layer cake of problems that involve Shiite-Sunni infighting and a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Further, the Yemeni government, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, is said to be using the war with the Shiite Houthis to expand the presence and influence of Muslim Brotherhood groups in the United States, while also working to revive ICNA and CAIR, whose influences have faded under the Trump administration. The hypocrisy of the Yemeni government giving a platform to Muslim Brotherhood imams and leadership must be underscored, especially as American Muslims are protesting failed Muslim leadership. It’s also worth noting that the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood party (Al-Islah) is said to be the most radical of all the Muslim Brotherhood parties worldwide. Any American politician lending their name and support to Islamist extremists not only undermines American interests, but also reformist Muslim efforts to challenge extremism from within their faith.

Political support for terror organizations continues even 17 years post 9/11 because American leadership has not been decisive or clear about identifying and labeling Islamist organizations. There is only a handful of political figures who resolutely stand up to Islamist organizations.

Current secretary of state and former congressman Mike Pompeo is one of them. In 2016, Pompeo openly challenged a local Islamic society and their Muslim-Brotherhood-supporting speaker.

Senator Ted Cruz is another politician who understands the Islamist threat.

In 2015, Cruz introduced the “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act,” which draws a decisive line in the sand against the foreign ideologically extremist agents. However, the bill still hasn’t made it into law.

The Muslim Brotherhood has already been banned as a terror organization in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Syrian and Bahrain.

For America to move the needle on ideological terror, it needs to act against Islamist agents and do a better job of educating elected officials on the international league of terror — the Muslim Brotherhood.

latest stories

The Clarion Project (formerly Clarion Fund) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating both policy makers and the public about the growing phenomenon of Islamic and other forms of extremism. The Clarion Project is committed to working towards safeguarding human rights for all peoples.